Invitation to tender15 June 2026

Open call for higher education providers: Developing theories of change and evaluation approaches for contextualised admissions

We are seeking to work with higher education providers who have a contextual admissions policy and wish to evaluate it.

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Introduction

The Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) is seeking to work with higher education providers who have a contextual admissions policy and wish to evaluate it. This forms part of our work with TASO’s UKRI policy fellow, Professor Anna Zimdars, to better understand what works best in the implementation of contextualised admissions.

We will work with selected providers to develop theories of change, identify suitable outcome measures and scope what data needs to be collected to robustly understand their contextualised admissions policy. 

Funding will be available to cover staff time to participate in workshops to develop the theory of change.

Introduction to TASO

TASO aims to improve lives through evidence-based practice in higher education. Our vision is to eliminate equality gaps for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups, allowing all students to have the same chance to enter HE, get a good degree and progress into further study or employment.

TASO is an affiliate ‘What Works Centre’ and is part of the UK government’s What Works Network. This means that TASO is committed to the generation, synthesis and dissemination of high-quality evidence about effective practice in widening participation and student success. Our role is to help the sector produce more robust evidence to provide the best possible understanding of which activities and approaches are most effective.

Project background

TASO’s UKRI fellowship aims to explore how contextual admissions are used to widen access to higher education for disadvantaged students, how their success is measured, and also to look at the public and policy debate on the topic. 

Contextual admissions help people from all sorts of different backgrounds to progress to higher education. Students can face additional challenges during their education which may have an impact on their entry qualifications. Higher education providers recognise these challenges, and can make adjustments through ‘contextual admissions’ – for example lowering the grade requirement, offering a foundation year, or providing an unconditional offer

While contextualised admissions are widely recognised as a tool for widening access to disadvantaged students, the sector currently faces a limited evidence base regarding their long-term effectiveness.To begin strengthening the evidence base, this strand of the policy fellowship is designed to develop comprehensive theories of change of contextualised admissions in different provider contexts. The project will also lay the groundwork for future evaluations by identifying suitable outcome measures and what data needs to be collected in order to facilitate robust evaluation of contextual admissions policies.  

Project scope

TASO will select up to six providers and lead on the development of a theory of change for their contextual admissions policy. A theory of change is a framework that maps the parts of an intervention, in this case a contextual admissions policy, the intended outcomes and impacts of the intervention, and how the intervention is expected to bring about change. 

TASO staff will lead a one-day in-person workshop with each selected provider to develop a theory change. This workshop will focus on mapping the causal pathways from contextualised admissions policy to impact, the assumptions behind them and what might mediate or moderate their effectiveness. A half-day online follow-up workshop will be conducted to further refine the theory of change. The aim of the theories of change is not just to describe the contextual admissions policy, but to identify the outcomes and impacts the policy aims to achieve, and the mechanisms by which the provider’s activities will contribute to this aim. 

Once developed, the theories of change will be published and accessible for the wider sector to use. TASO will also publish a report outlining the process of creating the theories of change and recommendations for the sector, with providers contributing their reflections.

Expectations for participating providers

• TASO will select up to six providers with which we will collaborate to develop theories of change of their contextual admissions policy.
• Theory of change workshops will take place in September and October 2026.
• Successful providers will be expected to commit time and resourcing to the theory of change development, including through meetings, workshops and reviewing of outputs. Table 1 details how project activities and responsibilities will be split across the organisations involved in the project

Table 1. Project responsibilities

Funding

Up to £2,000 will be provided to each selected provider to cover room hire and staff time to participate in the workshops.

Project timeline

Table 2. Project milestones and key dates

Eligibility 

• The applicant must be a registered English higher education provider in the approved (fee cap) category.
• The applicant must commit time and resourcing to the ToC development, including through meetings, workshops and reviewing of outputs.

Applications

To apply please fill out the online application form. The details required to complete the online application form are outlined in Appendix 1.

Assessment of applications

Your application will be assessed by the TASO Research and Evaluation team.

While the strength of applications will be assessed on the following criteria (please note the weighting of each section) we will also try to select providers so they represent the diversity of contextual admissions policies in the sector.

• Contextualised admissions policy  (30%)
  • Rationale for use of contextualisation in admissions 
  • Clarity about the offer of contextual admissions: what are you doing and for whom? 
  • Additional support for contextualised students after admissions  
• Relevance/impact of the project (30%)
  • The provider’s plan to use and implement the ToC beyond the lifecycle of this project.
  • Consideration of data systems required to deliver and evaluate contextualisation 
• Team (40%)
  • The relevant experience of the project team.
  • The team’s commitment to evidence-informed practice. 
  • The team’s approach to transparency and accountability.

Additional guidance

• TASO reserves the right, acting reasonably, to:
  • discontinue the award procedure in the absence of appropriate applications
  • change the timetable for the procurement of the Contract, and in such circumstances TASO will notify all applicants of any change by the fastest means possible
  • terminate discussions with organisations which apply
  • discontinue the procedure leading to the award of the Contract
  • not to award any Contract at all as a result of this process
• Under no circumstances shall TASO incur any liability in respect of any of these actions.
• No publicity regarding the project will be permitted until TASO has given express written consent to the relevant communication. No statements may be made to any part of the media regarding the nature of this application, its contents or any proposals relating to it without the prior written consent of TASO.
• TASO will not reimburse any costs incurred by organisations in connection with preparation of their applications. 
• If you are unsure of the meaning of a question or anything in this call for applications then it is your responsibility to ask TASO to clarify in writing via email (research@taso.org.uk).
• TASO will aim to answer clarification questions within five (5) working days, but does not undertake to do so. TASO may also decline to answer a question if it deems the question to be inappropriate. If TASO is unable to answer a question, this will be communicated.

Appendix 1: Information required to complete the online application form

Below is a list of the information you will need to provide in the online application form, to help you gather the necessary information before filling it out.  

Please read the data privacy notice, as you will be asked to confirm this during the application.

Contextualised admissions

• Which forms of contextualised admissions does your provider employ?
  • Contextual offers (1 grade below standard offer), Contextual offers (2 grades or more below standard offer), Guaranteed offers, Guaranteed interviews, Near-miss acceptances at confirmation, Additional consideration, Foundation year offers

Scope

• Which best describes your institution’s contextualised admissions policy?
  • Institution-wide, Institution-wide with departmental/course specific adaptations, Implemented in some departments/courses but not institution-wide, Applicable to postgraduate courses

Eligibility criteria

• What are the eligibility criteria for contextual admissions at your institution?

Intake

• What is the approximate size of your institution’s undergraduate intake each academic year?

Contextualised admissions cohort

• What is the percentage of your institution’s intake who were made a contextual admissions offer?
  •  (0%, 1%-5%, 6%-10%, 11%-20%, 21%30%, 31%-40%, 41%-50%, 51%+, Don’t know)

Ongoing support

• What forms of additional support are offered to contextually admitted students? Please indicate if these are universal or targeted. (Max: 1200 characters)

Rationale

• Please outline your institutional rationale for applying contextualisation in admissions (Max: 1200 characters)

Theory of change 

• Do you have a theory of change for your contextualised admissions policy?

Evaluation stage 

• Do you currently evaluate, or have plans to evaluate, your contextualised admissions policy?

Evaluation details for those currently or have plans to evaluate their policy

• Evaluation sharing
  • If selected,  would you be willing to share details of existing evaluations with TASO (including findings, if ready)?
• Type of evaluation 
  • What type(s) of evaluation are you conducting or planning to conduct?
    • Descriptive analysis/monitoring, Impact evaluation producing type 2 evidence (empirical), Impact evaluation producing type 3 evidence (causal), Implementation and process evaluation, Theory-based evaluation, Other
• Outcomes
  • What outcomes have you tested/are you planning to test?
    • Pre-enrolment stage (offer, acceptance, confirmation), Enrolment, Continuation, Completion, Module attainment, Degree attainment, Progression from higher education, Sense of belonging and mattering, Confidence in academic ability (self-efficacy), Other

Involvement

• Workshop commitment 
  • Can you commit to providing time for relevant staff to participate in a one-day workshop (preferably in person) during September 2026 and October 2026 ? The workshop would take place at your premises.
• Team
  • Please provide details of the team who will be involved in delivering / supporting the development of the TOC:
    • 1.   Details of key staff who will be involved with the ToC development.
    • 2.  The team’s involvement in developing  or supporting the contextual admissions policy.
    • 3.  Relevant knowledge and skills of contextual admissions and creating ToCs.
    • 4.  Capacity to meet key responsibilities in Table 1 of the call.  (Max: 3000 characters)
• Relevance
  • What is your motivation for taking part in this project?  (Max: 2000 characters)
    • Please describe how your provider would use the outputs of this project beyond its lifecycle. In your response, please also outline the data systems currently in place to support the delivery and evaluation of your contextualised admissions policy, and identify any known gaps.